Elvis Presley Albums

Speculation ran rampant about Elvis' future as the publicity surrounding his return from
the army reached mammoth proportions. Among the many questionspondered by the press and public: What would
Elvis' first recordings be like after two years away from the music scene? Would
he still maintain his position as popular music's premier recording artist?
Fans found the answer in his next album, Elvis Is Back, released in April 1960.

The album Elvis Is Back opened up like a book. Bonus photos were included on the inside.

Elvis
returned to a music scene very different than the one he had left. Smooth-sounding teen angels such as Bobby Vee, Bobby Rydell, Frankie Avalon. And
Connie Francis caught the ears of young listeners, while a dance craze called
the Twist propelled them across the dance floor.

Elvis and his manager, Colonel
Tom Parker, embarked on a campaign to mold his image around current trends and
away from the controversy that had followed him before the army. The rebellious
persona was cast aside for maturity; in his music, the innovation of his Sun
Studio roots was replaced by the calculation of mainstream ambitions.

While many
have criticized this change, it did not represent a decline in the quality of
Elvis' music. On the contrary, Elvis Is Back represents a peak in the singer's
career, when his maturity and confidence led to a control and focus in his
music.

Like the pre-army Elvis, this album offered an eclectic collection of
musical genres, from a sentimental duet with Charlie Hodge called "I Will
Be Home Again" to the gritty "Reconsider Baby" with a bluesy sax
solo by Boots Randolph. Once again, Elvis' talent of unifying disparate styles
of music resulted in an innovative and successful album, and it reached number
two on the charts.

Many of the
songs chosen for this album had been provided through publishing companies
owned by Elvis. In the future, this practice, combined with the Colonel's
insistence that Elvis concentrate on soundtrack material, resulted in
less-satisfying albums containing conventional songs with a homogenous sound.

Around this time, Elvis also returned to movie acting, starring in a series of musical comedies known as the "Presley travelogues." Each movie was released in conjunction with a soundtrack. To learn more about the first in this line of movie soundtracks, Blue Hawaii, see the next page.